Loading...
Reckoning with the Past
Konishi, Shino
Konishi, Shino
Author
Abstract
This chapter will explore why and how First Nations people still have to reckon with the myriad settler and Australian legal histories that have shaped their lives and histories since colonisation. I argue that we still need to reckon with law because settler law denied Aboriginal land title and continues to deny Aboriginal sovereignty. Tracing settler laws’ complicity with the colonial project, this chapter first examines how the fantasy of terra nullius was instantiated through laws which enabled the expropriation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lands and waters. It then examines how First Nations people have been unduly affected by separate, discriminatory settler laws which governed almost all facets of their lives. Yet, Australia’s legal system to redress these injustices, constitutes new and evolving chapters in the nation’s legal history.
Keywords
Indigenous history, Indigenous legal history, colonialism, terra nullius, protection acts, Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous law
Date
2022
Type
Book chapter
Journal
Book
The Cambridge Legal History of Australia
Volume
Issue
Page Range
740-764
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled
Notes
© Cambridge University Press 2022.